~~ODNEAL FAMILY BLOG~~Port of Readlyn, Iowa

For some reason I didn't take a ton of pictures on Thanksgiving Day like I do any other time that the family or friends get together. I guess I was having too good of a time eating and other stuff! So a few of these are mine and the rest my FIL (thanks JR) sent to me. I think the only people not in any photo are David and Sharon. The photographer never wants to be photographed duh!!! Anyway I am now trying to get into the holiday spirit for Christmas. Picked up some new ornaments and ribbon and some candy canes last night at Menards. Does that count? And we talked about the tree but it is still in the attic. Oh well. Bruce and Kyle will deer hunt this weekend so I will pretty much have free reign of my house during the daytime and plan on doing a little baking and ALL of my decorating. I usually spend at least a whole day baking but we just plain don't need all that yummy chocolate and stuff around here until February or better! So I am just doing some for the famil...

The Thanksgiving holiday is over, the working out hard to take care of all that I ate has begun, and now thinking of getting ready for Christmas. We have our Odneal family Christmas at our house on December 11th and it will come up fast. So I was sitting at my work desk today after the long four day weekend, and I looked up at my wall calendar as I do every morning to make sure of the date and realized what day this is. November 29th. My Momma's birthday. She would have been 74 today (I'm sure someone will correct me if I am off a year or something) were she still here with us. So I said a prayer and wished my Mom a "happy birthday" and went on with my day but thought of her often and looked at her picture on my desk many times. I hope she got a big piece of birthday cake and some ice cream up in heaven. Because if there truly is that wonderful place she would have definitely deserved to be there and is watching down on all of us. Hopefully with more smiles o...

May all of you and your family have a great Thanksgiving day with loved ones. I snapped a picture of one of my pumpkin pies with a fresh flower centerpiece that got delivered to me at work and I brought home. I will be bringing this to my beautiful SIL Sharon's house tomorrow rather she wants to put it on the table or not! I have many things to be thankful for this year as always. My kids and husband are my number one priority as usual. I love every minute that I get to spend with family. Especially every single memory made at the river all year long. How can anything be better than the time spent with family? I cherish every memory that we can make now, as I surely miss my parents all of the time. Make the most of your day with your family and friends, and eat that piece of pie that you think you shouldn't. We all only live once and should live every day as if it our last! So tomorrow I will be having that piece of pie with whipped cream, and a pumpkin bar. And n...

So very happy that it is a three day work week, but also more important the fact that Kyle decided to come home and spend his week with us. Well his roommates were leaving the house so he decided to stay at his "real home" with Mom, Dad and Ty. And we are very glad to have him. Even though he has to work each day. At least he will get Mom's home cooking for supper each night and gets to bond with all of us and the kitty's. See Gadget checking out his stuff he brought home in the photo. They (the cats) always have to check everything out that comes into this house. I think they think that they rule the roost or something. Who am I trying to kid? The cats definitely rule this roost! Now if I could only teach them how to clean their own litter box. Now that would be some kind of awesome. Then I might actually let them rule my roost!!!! Here's to a short work week for us and a long 4 day weekend. Hope you all get a short work week and long weekend too!  H...

Today Taylor turns 20. Wishing you a very Happy Birthday to a very special gal. And I apologize for Kyle that he didn't wrap your presents. I told him that I would have done that for him! But I know that you didn't really care about any of that. You are certainly pretty easy going and that is one of the things that we love about you. I hope your day is very special and fun, and I am so glad that you came over and we got to practice up on our winter Wii bowling skills. We will totally trash the boys this winter if we get a little more practice in. Look out suckers!!!!!!! We love you Taylor and hope that you have a great day. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!

I am so glad that these two still like to wrestle around the living room and beat each other up when Kyle gets the chance to be home on the weekend. Even though Kyle has some weight on Tyler, he seems to be able to hold his own pretty well. They always are laughing and having fun while beating each other up. As you can see in the background of the picture Bruce is cracking up on the couch. Even he will take a minute out of a football game on TV to watch his "boys" whooping ass on each other! Everyone have a great Friday and weekend!

Even those of us with husbands that are carpenter's/woodworker's sometimes have to buy items to fill our needs when our other half has absolutely no time to make what is needed. I have been piling up my scrapbooking stuff when not in use in a corner of the living room, or hauling it out onto the front porch every night when I'm done. Not fun. So Bruce was going to build me an armoire for all of my stuff to match the TV stand that he made me last year for the living room. Well lets just say that he finally admitted he just isn't going to have the time anytime soon to do that. We saw one in the Menards ad two Sundays ago that he said resembled what he was going to make and it was reasonable, so we went and after he approved  it I bought it. That was a week ago and I just got it filled up this last weekend. He still needs to adjust the doors that are out of wack a bit, and it isn't solid wood by any means (and was a pain in the arse to put together), but it wi...

Yep this photo of Gizmo in one of her favorite spots has nothing to do with this post really. I just played with the picture and thought it turned out nice. She always wants to lay in front of my sink on the rug mainly because there is a heat vent there, but also because she just wants to be wherever we are and I am ALWAYS in my kitchen. I always tell her that I'm going to step on her but so far she has been lucky and I haven't. But seriously what a pretty cat. So the reason my Tuesday will be happy is that I have a date with Kyle and am looking forward to it. Do Moms ever get sick of having a "date" with their college kid that they don't see often enough? Anyway I should want to avoid this one because he needs some groceries, and I offered to take him and get some and also take him out for dinner. Oh and we also need to do some birthday shopping for a special someone while we are out and about. So I am sure that it won't be a cheap outing, but I ...

We had Tyler's football banquet last night and even though I always dread having to do these social things I always have fun talking to friends and always proud by the time we leave. There was a variety of food as always, Coach gave his not so famous usual speech and recognition to coaches, players, cheerleaders, etc., and then there was a slide show. Now we start a season of high school basketball. That will be a change for us since Tyler hasn't played basketball since grade school. We are kind of more wrestling fans but I guess that will change this year. We told him that his All-District Academic award was more important than his varsity letter. He already knew that but lets hope it keeps him working to get those good grades so he can bring one home every year! Have a good Monday and week!

I splurged once again (yep for $3.99 a bouquet definitely worth it!) and bought myself an Aldi's flower bouquet for my countertop. It has the coolest flowers. My photo doesn't do it justice because I am not a photographer, but I play one for fun! Kyle came home Friday afternoon to game it up with Tyler, so that was my happy ending to my day. I was coming home from town and getting groceries when I saw a glimpse of Bruce's truck and trailer on the roundabout in my rearview mirror so I called him. He didn't see me but he told me Kyle brought the Exploder home to us. Woo hoo! Now we just need to find someone that is interested in a 97 Exploder with deer dents in the door and a going out transmission. Shouldn't be a problem, right? It has been a good vehicle for Kyle for 5 years so we cannot talk too bad about it. He loves his new Galant and I was excited today to see that insurance on that is only 60 some dollars more every 6 months than the liability. How...

This is our beautiful great niece Emily from Colorado on Halloween.  And yes she is totally adorable!  And such a character.  Cannot wait to see you again next summer Emily and your "bookini" of course!  Love and miss you guys!  Everyone have a great Friday and weekend.  Sounds like Iowa is in for some changing weather.  I'm not sure I can handle seeing that white stuff yet so lets hope they are wrong!

Happy Veterans Day to all of you military service people.  Thank you for serving and fighting for our country.  My Dad was in the Navy and I believe served in what he called the Korean Conflict.  Not sure if that is what they all refer to as the Korean War or not.  I have my Dad's Navy wool jacket that I always say I am going to wear in winter and just never have yet.  It is still in very good shape.  I guess I should get it cleaned and wear it.  I bet it is very warm! Also a VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY to two of my nieces Heather and Ashley .  Hope you both have a very great day.  I know that I don't have pictures on the laptop of you guys so you will just have to deal with it!!!  If you even see this post. But do something fun or make your husbands take you out or cook for you.  Yeah that would be cool.  Let me know how that turns out.  No, on second thought don't.  I don't need to know! To everyone else have a great T...

Here are some better pictures of Kyle's new car taken in the daylight. So far he loves his new car and is so much safer not having to deal with that slipping transmission on the Exploder! It rides pretty nice and has a lot of room inside. And thank goodness he found the trunk latch inside because I just couldn't believe he didn't have a button like me to push to open it. Of course I doubt he will use his trunk as much as I do or needs the trunk button much. But at least he has one! PHEW!!! That might have been a problem for me. I am strange like that. Everyone have a great Wednesday!

Could we ask for any better November weather in Iowa? I almost hate to say that. Yesterday when I walked out of work it was 65 degrees. And it is November 9th in Iowa. I realized tonight that I didn't post the pictures from the actual carving we did of our pumpkins on Halloween. So here is some pictures of the happenings. Of course Bruce decided not to carve one with us but Kyle, Ty, and I had fun doing it together. And I think they did turn out very nice this year. Even though as we speak I should be putting them out with the garbage tomorrow because they are looking pretty sad out on the driveway! Everyone have a great week. And we will take this warm weather for as long as mother nature decides to give it to us! Because as we all know way too soon for our liking we will be seeing that white stuff. SHHHHHH!!!!! I don't think Bruce has the tractor or snow blower ready yet. We need a little more time!

Well my brother Rick called Friday night and had shot (bow season) a deer that he wanted us to have (he only keeps one per year so we get any others that his group gets and don't want), so Bruce went after work today and picked it up. It was a 7 point buck, but apparently a very small buck. Well, we had an awesome supper tonight. There just isn't anything like fresh deer steak on the grill. I would eat that over filet mignon any day. Yep I said that. And Bruce was so worn out after that I will be bagging up deer tomorrow along with running some to Edgewood to be processed. Thank you Rick for the deer meat, and cannot wait to have some more deer bacon for breakfast! Hoping Bruce and Kyle each get one this December also. We can never get enough! I love them ( the deer) as long as they aren't in front of our vehicles! I guess we are some of those people helping slim down the over populated deer around. Please deer stay away from not only our vehicles, but also...

Here is Kyle's new purchase. The Exploder (as we call it) has a major transmission problem and I get regular text messages from Kyle telling me he "ALMOST DIED today" in it so I guess it was definitely time for him to purchase his own new vehicle. And that he did. It was rather dark when I snapped pictures tonight but I think he got a great vehicle. It is a 2009 Mitsubishi Galant. Very nice. And he bought it from big brother Cole who just recently went to John Deery so that was a plus too! Very glad that I don't have to worry about him pulling out and not being able to go anywhere in front of other vehicles. Mom will sleep better now. And Dad too knowing that us sending you overseas with your own credit card when you were 12 created an excellent credit rating for you! Were you even 12 or did you turn that when you got back? Oh well. I'm glad that London taught you how to shop and use that credit card, and bring Mom and Dad home some very nice souvenie...

Okay I didn't know that we were allowed to tell anyone yet until tonight.  Ashley's sister Amanda plastered it on FB so apparently it is okay to spread the word.  Bruce and I are going to be Grandparents!  Cole and Ashley are expecting, and the due date is June 21st which happens to be Tyler's birthday.  We are very excited about the news.  Although it makes us feel old!  But I'm sure with them a few blocks away we will be much more fortunate than the other Grandparents with the time we get to spend with the little "guy".  Yep I'm saying that right now so maybe it will be a little girl.  I called Tyler a girl the whole time that I was pregnant, and his brother Kyle called him "Katie Flower" up until he was born.  So I'm using reversed whatever hoping for a girl.  No, actually as long as they have a healthy, happy bouncing whatever we are very excited.  Cannot wait to be Grandparents and CONGRATULATIONS Ashley and Cole.  And yes...

We had our last football game of the year Monday night in West Branch for the second game of the playoffs. Unfortunately we didn't come out on top. Our guys did a great job as usual and have nothing to hang their heads about. There are always mistakes and questionable calls in any important game so let me just say that Wapsie Valley football players you've done us proud once again. Wish you could have gone on even further. Now those of us Moms that have sophomores or juniors can look forward to next years football season. I'm guessing we will be playing post season again for the next how many years to come. Great job Tyler and the WV teams!

I purchased this awesome satchel well over a month ago at Red Geranium Flowers & Gifts in Lansing because something about it just screamed at me that it would be perfect for me. I am pretty much a user of only 2-3 purses every year for many years so this was a big move for me. And the ones that I switch between are brown, black, and a happy yellow spring color. I don't like change. But Tuesday night I finally took the time to switch out purses and let me just say that I absolutely love this purse just for how everything fit into it perfectly. It has the handles that I love and usually use, but also the long strap for over the shoulder. This will work awesome for those dreaded "shopping" times that I absolutely despise. So this was just my way to show my awesome new satchel that I get to enjoy for a very long time, and to put that shout out to Red Geranium. We only shop there during houseboating season, but they have the best variety of greeting cards, jewelry that is ...

So here are our carved pumpkins. Bruce whimped out and decided he "didn't want to carve one". He just was lazy. Anyway, Kyle did the KC pumpkin, Ty did the middle one, and I did the last one. Now that I look at it I might have made Bart Simpson without trying to! I was just trying to make an original face compared to last year. So anyway I hope everyone has a great week. Our Chiefs won today which was way too exciting, and we are headed to West Branch tomorrow night for game 2 of the playoffs. Go Wapsie Valley! Kick some BUTT**!!! **Edited word so as to not offend anyone!  Sorry!